Review: TailGate Brewery Core Lineup
Nashville-based TailGate Brewery operates a whopping nine taprooms across Tennessee, but its core beer lineup includes only three offerings (plus a cider). Naturally you’ll find a steady stream of limited editions hitting the market, but if you’re new to the brand, as we are, this is the trio you’re going to encounter.
Thoughts follow.
TailGate Brewery Lager Projekt – Quite malty but not overwhelming and mercifully not too sweet, this bready lager tastes like it came straight outta Munich, moving from notes of fresh brioche to gentle peanut butter, flecked in the end with hints of cinnamon. While the body is rich and rounded, the finish is clean and quite refreshing — easy-drinking while still maintaining a certain sense of gravity. 4.8% abv. B+
TailGate Brewery Wizards’ Order IPA – This flagship IPA is built around Krush and Citra hops, giving it a fruit-forward quality that’s clear as a bell. Citrus and tropical notes, mango becoming expressive as the beer warms a bit, dominate before a more rustic bitterness emerges after the fruit starts to fade. It’s a welcome respite from what might otherwise have been a too-fruity experience, tempering any overt sweetness from taking over, though orange notes linger heavily on the finish. At 6% abv it’s fairly crushable, too. A-
TailGate Brewery Orange Wheat Beer – It has orange in the name and the can is orange, so expectations ran high that this would be quite a fruit-forward brew. Consider expectations fully met. If you like your witbier with a squeeze of fresh orange fruit you’re going to love this expression, which bursts with citrus to complement its bready, slightly chewy underbelly. There’s no spicy quality like you get with European hefeweizen; the orange does literally all the talking. That makes for a bright and very flavorful experience, though something of a one-note one. 5% abv. B+
each about $12 per six-pack
TailGate Brewery Wizards' Order IPA
USD12
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